[geeks] SunOS 4.1.4 network install?

[Cory Smelosky]

On Sun, 2 Apr 2017, Mouse wrote:

>> I'm having a lot of difficulty booting my Suns [...]
>
>> My mac is stuck at all Fs...
>
> "stuck at"?  As in, you can't change it even with the usual mkp/mkpl
> dance?  Or as in, it returns to ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on every power-off?
>
> If the latter, you can set it to whatever you want (08:00:20:c0:ff:ee
> is my usual choice in those circumstances) and netboot.
>
> In case you're not familiar with "the usual mkp/mkpl dance", it looks
> like this:
>
> ok 0 f mkp
> ok 8 0 20 c0 ff ee c0ffee mkpl
>
> then type ^D^R and if you just get the ok prompt back, you should be
> good (you can check with "banner").   If you get a copyright message in
> response to ^D^R, try again with a small number other than f in the mkp
> line.
>
> The first six values on the second line are the MAC address; the last
> value is the hostid.  (All in hex.)  They can be pretty much anything
> you want, though the first octet of the MAC probably must be even (ie,
> not be a multicast address).
>
> If the former, I've never seen that and am not sure what to do beyond,
> perhaps, checking that there is an NVRAM chip in the socket.  I have no
> experience dealing with a completely absent NVRAM; it would not
> surprise me if it were impossible to netboot in that case.
>

It's impossible to boot without an NVRAM - SCSI init will fail.

I had merely forgotten to go the mkpl song and dance...it was nearing 3am 
when I got fed up. ;)

>> Is there any means to install this system remotely? ;)
>
> Well, you can always put the disk on another SPARC and set it up there.
> I've done that often enough (though with NetBSD, not SunOS).
>

It occured to me today that I have a SCSI2SD I can use that will likely 
handle being a CD drive without issue...;)

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-- 
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects